Programme sponsorship

"Support the Club" asks somebody to fund an institution. "Fund a year for one kid" asks them to buy a specific thing that costs a specific amount and happens whether they give or not. For a Club the second is available and it is unusually compelling, because the number is small.

Derive the figure properly

It will be quoted back at you, so it needs to hold up. Decide with whoever holds the accounts:

• Which costs are included — programme delivery only, or building, administration and transport too
• Whether in-kind support, volunteer hours and donated meals are counted
• Whether the denominator is registered members or average daily attendance, which are very different numbers
• The period, using a full year

State the basis in a clause and describe it as what a sponsorship helps provide rather than what it buys. The registered-versus-attendance question is the one to settle explicitly — using registered members produces a lower and more startling figure, and a donor who works out the difference will ask.

Units that work

• A member-year, or a term
• A month of transport for a route
• A term of meals or snacks
• A season of a sports programme, or an arts programme cycle
• A staff position for a month — the largest real cost and the least sponsored
• Technology or equipment for a programme room
• A summer programme place, which is a distinct and larger cost

The staff month is worth listing. Donors default to funding equipment because it is tangible, while the actual constraint on a Club is having adults in the building — and naming that honestly is more persuasive than it sounds.

What a sponsor receives, and does not

• Yes: the knowledge that a member-year or programme was funded
• Yes: aggregate reporting — members served, attendance, meals provided, programme outcomes
• Yes: recognition, a certificate, a mention at the event, photographs of the Club
• Yes: naming a programme, a room or a space, where policy allows
• No: the identity of any member, or a photograph of a specific child
• No: choosing or meeting a sponsored member
• No: any information about which families receive fee assistance

Put those on the item page. A sponsor imagining a connection to a specific child is the natural assumption and it is the organization's job to correct it in advance.

Aggregate reporting is enough

"Your sponsorship covered a year for four members; the Club served two hundred and ten young people, provided eleven thousand meals, and kept the doors open every weekday" identifies nobody and is a better report than most donors ever receive.

Collect those numbers as routine. A Club already counts attendance and meals for other reasons, and turning that into reporting costs almost nothing.

Offer several, at several levels

Member-years are not scarce — capacity and staffing are. Offer multiple units from a term to a staff month, and where a waiting list or a capacity limit exists, say so. That number is the argument.

General information, not legal advice for your Club. Affiliate obligations, brand standards and youth protection requirements come from your national organization and your own policies — your executive director and national contact decide how any of this applies.